The new series of highly popular alchemy anime Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Full Metal Alchemist, which we first heard of in the Bones scandal, has had its release date confirmed, along with its website launched.

Airing is due to start in April 2009, and we already have something of a preview of the character designs with these:

The short CM, visible on the newly launched website, also aired alongside Gundam 00, and interestingly we hear that the Gundam 00 director is set also to direct FMA immediately after/alongside.

Supposedly the new anime will follow closely the ongoing manga and dispense with the plot of the terminally adapted anime, though it remains to be seen just how this will turn out…

Just finished watching the whole series+movie. The new series art looks great–if they stay true to the trailer and character examples–but I noticed right away that the eyes of Ed and of Roy Mustang are pinched. The eyes come off different than in the Original series. They may more ‘true’ to the manga version but in the trailer at least, and on the website, they come off as childish and distracting from the serious atmosphere. They are too simplified. Like the artists decided that ‘quality eyes’ was a corner they could cut. I don’t know about most of you but the eyes of a character are the most important factor in conveying a characters personality, emotions and purpose. When they changed that, the characters lost their believability–they were just cartoons. I like the original Ed and Mustang. Keep them the same.

I like many people watched the anime first and I have to say that I really enjoyed it however I found that the second half (where it really diverges from the manga) is weaker, feeling somewhat forced with characters like Honenheim barely getting any screen time. Also the ending where ED uses alchemy to bring back Al shows how how little he had learnt from his first human transmutation.

I then started to read the manga and though slow starting it really hit home how much better it was. In particular the image and representation of war and its effects are amazingly powerful, something the anime missed. The main villian Father is also far more menacing and of paramount interest due to his link to Hoenheim and his frightening plans for the country.

I hope that the new series will stick closely to the manga while giving us some new material. I also urge others to read the manga or re-read if you ditched it; it develops into something amazing.

i watched the anime first and loved the concept but god i hated the ending so much, and some of their times were a bit off, fma is set like 1904 or something since when was WW2 around then? they were off by a couple of decades -_- but anyway then i decided to read the manga to see if the story was better and wow it was, i and loved it to pieces, i was so upset that the anime had not done it justice, lol i was like EH!? when i heard another series was been done soooo happy ^.^

It takes place in 1923, not 1904. Hilter took over the NSDAP in 1921. The film actually depicts Hitler’s fail coup. The film is actually fairly clever, and semi accurate. They do a great depiction of Fritz Lang, while he films Die Nibelungen.

If you’re going to criticize the film, at least get the negatives right.

It’s one of the few “series films” to actually try and tell a coherent story. Most are choppy action/music videos that gloss over everything and make little sense. This at least served as a good book end to a respectable series.

At first I thought that this is the continuation from the prev season or the movie vers.
And I was really looking forward to it.
But then I figure it out, it’s not like that.
well it’s a shame, because i just wanna know the continuation of the anime vers story.

I know the manga was so damn good compare to the anime story (and i couldn’t agree more. I even buy the original manga from the store :p), but the anime vers got some of the unique plot for it self. and from what my point of view, if it’s a remake and the story is really exactly the same from the manga series, it’s less attractive for me. because it got the same-exact story. if the manga is still running low on the volume. i guess it will be a great one. but the manga is already so far away.. i don’t know when the anime series will keep up and then again, many anime series doesn’t really follow up manga series which has a lot of volume.

(aa~ i want to see the edward who see/meet einstein or thomas alfa.. – i couldn’t remember who he said he want to see in the last movie. And again, he was together with alponse. I want to know whether they can make it back home safely and how, and i want to see many things)

But then again i’m still ‘moe~ru’ and can’t wait anylonger to watch this series, even though it has the same-exact story..
because after all, i’m a big fans of FMA..
FMA Saikyo…
Banzai…

If they do a remake, they better do it properly. I don’t care how many episodes it takes just as long as it fleshs out all the characters. Manga wise, it def is endgame. I just wonder how many chapters are left and if that will conflict with the anime production. It would suck so many balls so hard if they had to do another anime only ending.

Anyone here know if they are going to use new voice actors? I know it is kind of silly to hope that they will use the same but I cant help feeling a bit worried about it. It will be hard to get used to new ones.
That is the only thing worrying me about this project. Other than that… BANZAI!!!
I thought the anime ending felt weird and the movie… trying my best to forget it.

I’m really glad they’re finally going to make justice…
The anime was good, but in the ending with that whole Dante thing…it felt different somehow, and when I read the manga I knew why.

The original anime story seems rushed at the ending, and some of the ideas and characters didn’t seem to fit the series style…maybe that’s why I prefer manga over anime. Specially with wrath…

The story started molding up nicely after Ling appeared, Character interaction and development is a strong point in the manga. Also we can see the “true ending”. We have to consider that the story Arakawa wanted to tell us since the beginning is the story pictured in the manga.

The anime was good, no doubt, but the ending was modified by Arakawa for obvious reasons, they couldn’t wait for her to finish so they had to make up an ending, we should be thankful she was the one that made the ending of the anime and not someone else, that’s why we can consider it canon.

But the story of the manga should have priority over the anime, this story is not rushed, she planned it since the beggining, she even incorporated some anime-only characters like Kingsley… and even if you are fan only of the anime or think this is just to make money, you should at least give it a try out of respect for Hiromu Arakawa.

Uh. I think this case is slightly different (though I agree about the whole milking thing). It’s mostly because the FMA story hadn’t even been completed yet, or gotten to a substantial point in its storyline.

All I’m hoping for is that they do the manga justice. Besides, they’ve already milked FMA quite a bit–the terrible movie, the merchandise at conventions–it’s going to happen either way. They might as well have a second go at it, as long as they don’t royally screw up again. 🙂

Looking at the CM, the character designs seem to look more like the manga than the original anime did, but not completely (well, Ed and Mustang, since Al looks the same in both, and we don’t see anyone else).

And the manga is very obviously coming up to an ending point. Several of the protagonists are in the process of planning a “final showdown”, all of the surviving homunculi, as well as Hohenheim, are in play, one of the central characters is on his last legs and literally fading in and out, and the Big Bad seems to have all his pieces just about in place. The only real secret left is to find out what the “sacrifices” mean, but I imagine that’s going to be a massive “pieces falling into place” surprise/twist right before the end, so it’ll come when it comes. I give it 5-6 chapters more at most before it really starts hitting the fan with some major endgame action, if it even takes that long.

yosh, well, i think the first anime is great but in a lot of ways i hated the ending to it, because it wasn’t much of a resolution… look at what they did to Winry! leaving her alone like that. which isn’t to say it was bad, just not my personal tastes.

I want to see the manga animated, i want to see all those crazy shits she introduced as characters, i want to see the insanity unfold before our eyes. and i want to see more Greed.

Also, you’re concerns over time are misplaced. we’ll have 5 more chapters out before the series even starts, and consider this. we’ll get about 2 season worth or 50 episodes minimum out of the manga storyline, more than that even in my opinion. that’s a good 1-2 years for her to finish up in. there is plenty of time for the manga to finish, and if they have to, well, they’ll do filler like any other series, though I suspect they won’t need to, which would be incomparably awesome.

Except with different and better charcterization, a different and better over-plot, several entirely different characters (though some of them admittedly not better in this case), a MUCH more badass motivation for Mustang…

I think, though, that because of the time it takes to produce each episode, it’ll turn out fine if they handle it right. There’s still a lot of stuff to cover because of the fullness of the manga’s story, so here’s hoping Bones doesn’t screw it up again.

I really look forward to seeing the show redone with the manga ending. But in all fairness, for those of us who watched the anime version first, I was very, very satisfied with the ending. Compared with other shows that go past the manga, the Full Metal Alchemist ending is the best. Claymore did a quick wrap up that made little sense and left a lot of questions unanswered (granted, if you read the manga, you can pretty much pick up from around the ending of the anime). And D-Grayman and Inuyasha just stopped right in the middle. I liked all the series I just mentioned, but the fact is, Full Metal Alchemist is the only one who tried to make a coherent ending.

I agree. I’ve watched SO many anime that had just Gods-awful endings, like Trinity Blood that just kinda introduced a whole new storyline as their ending (and where did they get that Ester-princess idea?), InuYasha (you’re right; it totally just drops off in the middle of the series), Scry-ed (which wasn’t so bad, but it was a rather confusing ending, in my opinion), or Samurai Champloo (do NOT even get me started with how absolutely messed up that ending was; it was just not right). So, the FullMetal Alchemist ending was like poetry for me. And I know the movie was a little less satisfying than it could have been, I still can’t bring myself to hate it. Anyway, I happen to love FullMetal Alchemist, so (although I did not read the manga because I do not like the animation enough to be able to get through it) I am very excited to see the new FullMetal Alchemist series. I’d like to see how FMA pans out differently. I love the characters, so as long as they look the same and are essentially the same characters then I am completely thrilled about FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It’s going to be on so soon too!

actually, a lot of people prefer the anime to the manga (myself included, I read up to vol.16 and just couldn’t get into it as much), so I’m think you may be in the minority there. Either way, I’ll not really looking doward to this cause personally, if they wanted to make it closer to the manga, they would have waited for there to be more volumes, and the original show has already left a big impact on a lot of people, so it feels kinda moot.

Dude, chill. I saw the anime first and was an avid fan. Then I actually decided to read through the manga and was hooked. Why?

People say the anime plot is “bad” because, quite honestly, it’s all over the place. It isn’t bad in itself, but it is a little convoluted at times and fizzled out at the end. It was almost like the writers were covering their asses. I don’t say that because, as you put it, it wasn’t “OMG HAPPY.” I say that because it was a total out-of-the-ass deus ex machina when Ed died, Al brought him back to life, then Ed went right through the Gate again. Even with this I would have been happy, but the movie was just bad fanfiction altogether.

Don’t forget the fact that the character personalities in the manga are much fuller, more consistent and realistic with their development.
I think the anime is fantastic, but the manga, from an artistic standpoint, has a lot more on it. And a lot more potential in the long run.

As I always wish people would do, don’t knock someone’s opinion straight up. ‘s not cool.

Since when did the anime have a bad storyline? Storyline is great and you know it. Just because it doesn’t have an OMG HAPPY end doesn’t mean it’s bad. Hell, that’s one of the things I like about most Japanese film, it’s not always a happy ending.

As I watched the anime first, I almost dropped it with various inconsistency and the jerky pace (especially reaching the last plot part, Dante and Honenheim).
It became extremely far fetched, especially the gate leading to “our world” during WWII. It was enjoyable, but the last arc was really not stirring any full enjoyement than the rocky start.

And then afterwards, reading the manga was really better in my sense: Large scale plot, no so sloppy and random “humanity” of the homoculi, epicness everywhere (especially with the last few chapters. Fuck, it hate to wait a full month for each release, but the plot reminds me that the author does NOT do jack with her series, and it is marvelous).

Total restart. Altho the decision by Bones was because the mangako (Arakawa Hiromu) promised that she would finish the manga in 4 years time (that was during 2004/5). It’s still kinda iffy tho, as the manga looks nowhere nearing an end, altho she could conjure up a Deus Ex Machina if she wanted to :3